Imus, a member of the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame and one of the nation's best-known radio voices, is renowned for his caustic style and politically incorrect verbal broadsides. His show is syndicated to millions of listeners at more than 70 stations around the country

NEW YORK — Syndicated talk-radio personality Don Imus apologized Friday for calling members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" during a segment yesterday in his "Imus in the Morning" show.

Imus and his producer and on-air sidekick, Bernard McGuirk, went on to further attack the black members of the team, calling them "jigaboos and wannabees."

In his apology, Imus called his comments "insensitive and ill-conceived."

"It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended," he told listeners at the opening of his broadcast Friday morning.

He further called the comments "thoughtless and stupid" and said, "We're sorry."

The apology came after Imus initially brushed aside criticism, telling The New York Times "not to worry about some idiot saying something meant to be amusing."

Rutgers officials issued this statement: "We agree with Mr. Imus that this was, in his own words, an 'idiot comment.' We are very proud of the success of the Rutgers women's basketball team. Coach Stringer and the Rutgers players are outstanding ambassadors for this great institution."

Shortly after Imus made his comments about the Rutgers team, MSNBC released the following statement: "While simulcast by MSNBC, 'Imus in the Morning' is not a production of the cable network and is produced by WFAN Radio. As Imus makes clear every day, his views are not those of MSNBC. We regret that his remarks were aired on MSNBC and apologize for these offensive comments."

The comments drew immediate outrage from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), which had called for a boycott of Imus' show until he issued a "sincere and unequivocal apology," referring to him as a "sophomoric host."

"Has he lost his mind?" asked NABJ President Bryan Monroe, vice president and editorial director for Ebony and Jet magazines in Chicago. "Those comments were beyond offensive. Imus needs to be fired. Today."

The veteran talk-jock's remarks came during a discussion — that included WFAN show host Sid Rosenberg, McGuirk and show regular Charles McCord — about Rutgers' loss to Tennessee, 59-46, Tuesday night in the NCAA Women's Basketball Finals.

Imus: So, I watched the basketball game last night between — a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women's final.

i know its wrong for him to make racially demeaning remarks but i mean, he sort of does make a correct judgement. im not racist, but he could have dimmed it down, like calling them thugs are whatever. once again, im not racist, but people should know what there getting when they hear him. hes done things in the past like this before. i wonder how many times someones called him a pube head or jew and he just blew it off. rutgers is making this a huge ordeal, they need to calm the hell down.

i know its wrong for him to make racially demeaning remarks but i mean, he sort of does make a correct judgement. im not racist, but he could have dimmed it down, like calling them thugs are whatever. once again, im not racist, but people should know what there getting when they hear him. hes done things in the past like this before. i wonder how many times someones called him a pube head or jew and he just blew it off. rutgers is making this a huge ordeal, they need to calm the hell down.

Note to everybody, the Jigaboos vs. Wannabees thing is actually from a Spike Lee movie, School Daze, so they didn't come up with that themselves. Still a trip that he even went there though...

Am I a bad person for simply not caring? I know what he said was wrong and he's a jackass for saying it, but....whatever. I don't care about Don Imus, I don't care about RU's women's basketball team, I don't care about women's basketball, period.